Here are all of the Children’s Literature and Comics/Graphic Novels sessions at the 2023 MLA, held this year in person in San Francisco — and on-line, as noted below. I’ll actually be there this year. (I’d planned to attend last year’s, but Omicron pushed most of the conference on-line. Here’s hoping any new variants prove mild and susceptible to the vaccine!) If there are any omissions, please let me know — ideally in the comments below or via email.
21 – Histories of Childhood and Medicine
Thursday, 5 January 2023, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Join Virtual Session on 5 January, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Presider: Mary Gryctko, Baruch C, City U of New York
Presentations:
- ‘Born under . . . Humane Forgetfulness’: McClure’s, Twilight Sleep, and Early-Twentieth-Century Positive Eugenics, Heather A. Love and Jerika Sanderson, U of Waterloo
- Nurturing White Supremacy: Eugenics, Baby Books, and the Birth of Pediatric Medicine, Mary Gryctko, Baruch C, City U of New York
- Disciplining Futures for the Feral Child, Mary Zaborskis, Penn State U, Harrisburg
- Categories of Age before Developmentalism, Gabrielle (Brie) Owen, U of Nebraska, Lincoln
Session Information:
- Allied Organization: Children’s Literature Association
- Forum: TC Medical Humanities and Health Studies
- Program: Allied Organizations
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
Keywords:
48 – Comics and the Making of Queer Communities
Thursday, 5 January 2023, 1:45 PM – 3:00 PM PST
Presiders:
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Margaret Galvan, U of Florida -
William Orchard, Queens C, City U of New York
Speakers:
-
Tesla Cariani, Emory U -
Margarita Castromán Soto, Rice U -
Nicholas Derda, U of Southern California -
Chase Gregory, Bucknell U -
Cassia Hayward-Fitch, U of East Anglia -
Maite Urcaregui, San José State U
Session Information:
- Forum: GS Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Cultural Studies, Folklore, and Popular Culture
- Session: Comics and the Making of Queer Communities
Keywords:
136 – “Constellations of Coresistance”: Global Indigenous Youth Literature, Imagination, and Survivance”
Thursday, 6 January 2023, 7:00 – 8:15 PM PST
Marriott Marquis – Yerba Buena Salon 14 (Lower B2 Level)
Presider: Celeste Trimble, St. Martin’s U
Presentations
- Reclaiming Indigenous Girlhood in Sia Figiel’s Where We Once Belonged, Celiese Lypka, U of Winnipeg
- Indigenous Aesthetics: Reading Allegory and ‘Third Space’ in Cole Pauls’s Dakwäkãda Warriors, Sayanti Mondal, Illinois State U
- Counterstorytelling and Alternative Childhood Ecologies in Shi-shi-etko and Shin-chi’s Canoe, Rachel Feldman, U of California, Santa Barbara
- Allied Organization: Children’s Literature Association
- Program: Allied Organizations
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: “Constellations of Coresistance”: Global Indigenous Youth Literature, Imagination, and Survivance”
Keywords
196 – Responding to Postcolonial Condition: Discursive Shift in Contemporary Nigerian Children’s Literature
Friday, 6 January 2023, 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM PST
Join Virtual Session on 6 January 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM PST
Presider: Ignatius Chukwumah, Federal U, Wukari
Presentations
- EbonyStory and the Rise of Online Children’s Literature in Nigeria, Ignatius Chukwumah, Federal U, Wukari
- Battling Sickle-Cell Anemia: Empathy as Sensitization in Jude Idada’s Boom Boom (2019), Martin Okwoli Ogba, Federal Univ. of Lafia
- Decoding Animal Language: Folkloric Realism in Jude Idada’s Boom Boom (2019), Jude Chukwuemeka Muoneke, Federal U, Wukari
Keywords:
211 – Pandemic Childhoods
Friday, 6 January 2023, 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Marriott Marquis – Pacific Suite A (Level 4)
Presider: Gabrielle (Brie) Owen, U of Nebraska, Lincoln
Presentations:
- Unmasked and Unvaxxed: Spike Proteins, Smiles, and Other Panics of Pandemic Childhoods, Rebekah Sheldon, Indiana U, Bloomington
- Immunity, Innocence, and Irreversible Damage: Trans Childhoods in Pandemic Disaster Politics, Jacob Breslow, London School of Economics and Political Science
- Comics for Kids, the COVID Crisis, and Young Readers as Powerful Agents of Change, Alison Halsall, York
- A Study of the Impact of the Pandemic on Disabled Children in India with a Focus on Education, Arpita Sarker, Penn State U, University Park
Session Information:
- Forum: GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Pandemic Childhoods
Keywords:
227 – Gothic Now: Gothic Forms
Friday, 6 January 2023, 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Panelists consider the contemporary Gothic in comics, video games, creepypasta, music videos, and audio dramas.
Presider: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Central Michigan U
Speakers:
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Drago Momcilovic, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee - Adam Ochonicky, U of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
- Jamieson Ridenhour, Warren Wilson C
- Aasta Thomas, North Carolina State U
- Joshua Tuttle, Penn State U, University Park
Session Information:
- Forum: CLCS Gothic Studies
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Cultural Studies, Folklore, and Popular Culture
Keywords:
241 – The Future of Language in Asian American Literature
Friday, 6 January 2023, 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Presider & Respondent: Jennifer Ho, U of Colorado, Boulder
Presentations:
- Representing Multilingualism and Diasporic Identity in Robin Ha’s Almost American Girl, Prof. Eleanor R. Ty, Wilfrid Laurier U
- ‘You Already Know This Word’: Malaka Gharib’s Pedagogical Project, Rachel Norman, Linfield U
- Hyperbolizing the ‘Xenophone’: Dystopian Visions of Hybrid Languages in Dance Dance Revolution, Elizabeth Kim, Haverford C
Session Information:
- Program: Special Sessions
- Subject: American Literature – Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Session: The Future of Language in Asian American Literature
Keywords:
280 – Indigenous Literatures of the Boarding and Residential Schools in the United States and Canada
Friday, 6 January 2023, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Join Virtual Session on 6 January, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Scholars working on recent and historical representations of residential school experience by Indigenous survivors in the United States and Canada address the following questions: What do we learn from studying the memoirs of residential school survivors? What is the relationship between residential or boarding schools, biopolitics, and gender-based violence? How can literature work toward healing Native communities?
Presider: Cristina Stanciu, Virginia Commonwealth U
Speakers:
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Marie-Eve Bradette, U of Regina -
Sarah Henzi, Simon Fraser U -
Isabel Quintana Wulf, Salisbury U -
Cristina Stanciu, Virginia Commonwealth U -
Joanna Ziarkowska, U of Warsaw
Session Information:
Keywords:
330 – [Postponed from 2022] Streetwise: Children’s Literature and Culture in the Modern City
Friday, 6 January 2023, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM PST
Marriott Marquis – Pacific Suite A (Level 4)
Presider: Kristin B. Bluemel, Monmouth U
Presentations:
- British Children’s Classics in the Modern City: A Tale of Two Series, Amy Webster, Bishop Grosseteste U
- St John’s Wood and the Hundred Acre Wood: The Urban Illustration of E. H. Shepard, Kristin B. Bluemel, Monmouth U
- Modernism for Girls: Laura Riding’s Schooling for Street Smarts, Anett Jessop, U of Texas, Tyler
- Growing a ‘Beautiful Place’: Urban Romance of the Rural in African American Children’s Literature, Paige Gray, Savannah C of Art and Design
Session Information:
- Allied Organization: Children’s Literature Association
- Allied Organization: Modernist Studies Association
- Program: Allied Organizations
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
Keywords:
332 – Comics and Accessibility
Friday, 6 January 2023, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM PST
Presider: Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, U of Oregon
Respondent: Rachel Kunert-Graf, Antioch U, Seattle
Presentations:
- Sometimes My Hand Shakes So Much I Have to Hold My Wrist to DrawMichelle Ann Abate, Ohio State U, Columbus
- Tactile Comics, Disability Studies, and the Mind’s EyeBenjamin Fraser, U of Arizona
- Accessible Comics for Blind and Low-Vision Readers: An Emerging JourneyNick Sousanis, San Francisco State U
Session Information:
- Forum: GS Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Cultural Studies, Folklore, and Popular Culture
- Session: Comics and Accessibility
Keywords:
417 – Chicanx YA Literature in the Twenty-First Century
Saturday, 7 January 2023, 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM PST
Presider: Ariana Ruiz, U of California, San Diego
Presentations:
- ‘[F]or You, Our Youth, Our Future’: Chicanx Identities in Contemporary Young Adult Short Stories, Cristina Rhodes, Shippensburg U
- Aspirational Mirroring: Representation and Possibility in Latinx YA Literature, Marlee Northcutt, U of Kentucky
- Coming Out and into Community Dialects: Language and Lesbian Identity in What Night Brings, Jamiee Cook, U of California, Santa Barbara
Session Information:
- Forum: American – LLC Chicana and Chicano
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: American Literature – Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Session: Chicanx YA Literature in the Twenty-First Century
Keywords
500 – Working toward the Speculative Future
Saturday, 7 January 2023, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Join Virtual Session on 7 January, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Presentations:
- Latinx Futurity through Interactive Narration in Life Is Strange 2, Cristina Rhodes, Shippensburg U
- Posthuman Inclusion in Ready Player Two, Alexa Dicken, St John’s U, NY
- Theorizing Rape Culture through Young Adult Fantasy: Rachel Hartman’s Tess of the Road, Corinne Matthews, U of Florida
Session Information:
- Forum: GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Working toward the Speculative Future
Keywords
579 – Protest Visualities
Saturday, 7 January 2023, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM PST
Presider: Ruby Tapia, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Presentations:
- Against Closure, Phoebe Braithwaite, Harvard U
- Rehearsing the Future: Visualizing Protest in Omar Victor Diop’s Photography, Abigail Celis, U de Montréal
- Using the US-Mexico Border to Bear Witness to the Deportation of US Childhood Arrivals, Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana, U of California, Davis
- Comics in Protest: Ms. Marvel and the Muslim Superheroine Patriot, Aliyah Khan, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Session Information:
Keywords:
738 – Comics and Poetry
Sunday, 8 January 2023, 1:45 PM – 3:00 PM PST
Presiders:
- Michael Leong, California Inst. of the Arts
- Lauren Russell, Michigan State U
Presentations:
- In the Cut: Collage, Critique, and Humor in Visual Poetry, Indie Comics, and Zines, Yona Harvey, U of Pittsburgh
- Productive Failure in the Collaborative Poetry Comics of Robert Creeley and Joe Brainard, Jessica Stark, U of North Florida
- Lean-To: The Provisional Dialogic Structures of Image+Text, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Session Information:
- Forum: GS Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Forum: RCWS Creative Writing
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Poetry
Keywords: